My dd is 13 and has asked for one for christmas. I have already purchased the home,and a few other things to go with it. What is a good hamster to get? Petco had the teddy bear hamsters, they were so cute!!! What kind of advice can anyone give me about them? Can they really be tamed or not? What should I look for? Any and all advice is appreciated!!!

By Shann on Wednesday, December 7, 2005 - 09:22 pm:

We have 1 and 2 gerbals as for being more tame the gerbals are. MY dd with a little of loving they will play with her. They like to rid in her pockets. She has 2 females and they play with each other they say to get 2 and they wont get lonely. We put toleit paper rolls in there gage and they will play for hours. As for Cheddars our hampster. He gets out and plays but tends to run from you when you try and pick him up.but they are both neat to watch. but If I had to pick I would do gerbals. The lady who we adopted them from say they are more socialble. so we didn't think she was telling the truth we just thought she wanted to get rid of them. but we called a few other pet stores and they all said gerbals were the way to go.

By Bemerry84 on Thursday, December 8, 2005 - 09:01 am:

I just bought a hampster for my boys 8 & 14. They love him. He's a tan teddy bear hampster that we got a Petco. He is very friendly and loves to be handled. He is really cute when he gets one of his blueberry treats. We had a guinnea pig last year for a couple of months bfore it died and it was not friendly at all. This is the second hampster we've had the other one was just as adorable and live for about 3 years. Good Luck!!!

By Cat on Thursday, December 8, 2005 - 09:17 am:

We had hampsters when I was in jr high/high school. They were all pretty tame. We had one of those balls they could run around in. It was great! One thing--they do stink if you don't clean the cage like every other day or so. Sometimes every day! My mom had a guinnea pig and it was wonderful!!! That thing would start chattering as soon as she walked through the door. It was very social and had a great personality. Unfortunally, my nephews took it outside one day (had an outdoor enclosure--just some 4x4's and mesh) and their dog decided to play with it when they weren't paying attention. Big Husky/Wolf hybrid vs little Guinnea Pig=dead guinnea pig. I'd definately go for the teddy bear or fancy hampsters just because they're so darned cute! Of if you'd consider a guinnea pig, they're good, too. If you've already got the cage for a hampster though, it won't be big enough for a guinnea pig. Oh, don't let a hampster loose in the house. One of ours got into the couch once and we almost couldn't get the little thing out! lol Guinnea pigs are easier to keep and eye on when they're out. Good luck!

By Heaventree on Thursday, December 8, 2005 - 11:42 am:

I had guinnea pigs as a child, they were in my bedroom. They are noctural and mine squeeked all night long!

Don't know if anyone else experienced this.

By Tink on Thursday, December 8, 2005 - 03:03 pm:

We had a couple of teddy bear hamsters growing up and they were very unsocial. We looked into getting one for our kids and were told that they were fairly high maintenance pets. Daily cage cleaning, needed to be handled several times every day in order to be friendly and they have a high mortality rate. Hamsters are also nocturnal so they tend to be sleeping when kids want to play with them. The plastic balls aren't reccommended any longer because it's very easy for the animals to overheat inside them. Provide LOTS of things for them to chew on or their teeth will grow too long and they'll chew on everything else. Good luck!

By Ginny~moderator on Friday, December 9, 2005 - 01:21 am:

Just be sure they are all one gender. Hamsters and gerbils reproduce like crazy! ONe of my experiences as a child was that the momma hamster ate her babies because she was trying to "hide" them when we got near her cage - not nice.